Autania is headed by Dr. Helmut Rothenberger, who years ago helped
his brothers run the Pittler Group of machine-tool companies.

It's not the first time that Allied Capital (NYSE: ALD)
invested in Autania. The "Public Investor's Private Equity
Firm" helped fund Autania's June takeover of the balance of
stock in Wirth & Gruffat S.A. (Pringy, France), the producer of dial
index machines and turning centers. As part of the same financing
package, which also included debt through an Austrian banking
consortium, Autania acquired Bad Duben Profilwalzmaschinen G.m.b.H. (Bad
Duben, Germany), the producer of thread- and profile-rolling and
ring-rolling equipment.

Allied Capital's strategy is typical of investment houses.
"We go in where banks don't and the owners don't have the
capital to expand," Allied's Stefan Schmidt explains.
"Our time frame is typically four to six years and then we cash
out." WFL Millturn is using some of that money to fund an expansion
of assembly area by 25%. The large Millturn multifunction machines, some
of which can weigh 50 tons, will be erected in new 1300-sq.-meter bays
at Linz.

Allied Capital's stake is in, as Schmidt puts it, a stable and
predictable business plan with good cash flow. New orders year-to-date
at WFL Millturn are up 19% over last year, despite the worldwide
machine-tool downturn.

In addition to WFL Millturn, holding company Autania
(www.autania.de) also operates Elb-SchliffWerkzeugmaschinen G.m.b.H.
(Babenhausen, Germany), which specializes in creep-feed grinding.

Do the recent acquisitions mean Autania is on the road to becoming another
Pittler Group?

The Pittler Consolidated Group was controlled by the Rothenbergers
and in early 1990s had assembled a cluster of firms that included
Pittler, Motch, Naxos-Union, Diskus Werke, Fritz Werner, Niles,
Magdeburger, and Tornos-Bechler. By the end of the decade, the
machine-tool conglomerate unraveled as financial woes mounted and as the
brothers went in separate directions. Now Karl Rothenberger is retired
and Gunther Rothenberger is concentrating on real estate, leaving Helmut
in machine tools.

Autania had also been part of the Pittler Group. Its function as a
holding company was instrumental when it took over WFL Millturn. The
Austrian machine-tool builder had been founded in 1945 as
turning-machine producing portion of metals producer Voest Alpine, and
in the mid-1980s started producing a proprietary five-axis
turning-drilling-milling center it dubbed Millturn. When the company was
acquired by Autania A.G. in 1993 it had become part of the Voest Alpine
Steinel Ges.m.b.H. organization; it was refounded as
Werkzeugmaschinen-Fabrik Linz Ges.m.b. It. (WFL). This year Autania
renamed it WFL Millturn Technologies G.m.b.H.K.G., underlining the
Millturn machines, sold in the U.S. through Motch.

WFL Millturn Technologies G.m.b.H., Linz, Austria. [43] 70-69411-0.

Autania A.G., Kelkheim, Germany. [49] 6195-976612.

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